The Partido Popular requested this Thursday the urgent appearance of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, before the Permanent Deputation of the Congress of Deputies so that he can give explanations about the railway accident that occurred on Wednesday in Urda (Toledo), where the rear-end collision between an AVE train from Renfe and a train from Iryo has caused 69 deaths and more than a hundred injuries.
The initiative, filed in the early afternoon of this October 29, calls for the head of the Government to report on the "causes, consequences, actions and responsibility of the Government" in relation to the accident. The request has been submitted by full and substitute deputies of the Grupo Parlamentario Popular who are part of the Permanent Deputation, as stated in the document addressed to the Bureau of this body.
The Popular Party is thus raising the demand for parliamentary explanations to the Prime Minister himself, after the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, called this Thursday for political responsibility over the tragedy during his visit to Urda and questioned the continuity of the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente.
The PP demands explanations from Sánchez
In its request, the Popular Group refers to the "terrible railway accident that occurred on October 28, in Urda (Toledo)", which, according to the document, "has shocked all of Spain" and has caused dozens of deaths and more than a hundred injuries.
The request is not limited to demanding information about the technical origin of the collision, but expressly includes the actions carried out by the Government and its eventual responsibility in what happened. With this, the PP intends for Sánchez to appear personally before the Permanent Deputation, the body that guarantees the continuity of parliamentary activity when Congress is dissolved.
Feijóo demands political responsibility
The parliamentary initiative comes after Feijóo visited Urda this Thursday, where he defended that political responsibilities do not have to wait for the conclusions of administrative or judicial investigations.
"Political responsibilities are not optional, they are demandable, ethically and morally", stated the president of the PP, who also questioned the performance of the Executive and its decisions regarding the management of railway infrastructure.
For its part, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has announced that he will appear this Tuesday before the Permanent Deputation to explain the circumstances of the accident and has planned to offer new public explanations this Friday.
The investigation into the accident remains open
The PP’s request comes while the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF) continues examining the causes of the collision, recorded around 8:53 a.m. on Wednesday on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line.
The first reconstructions point to a computer failure in the LZB safety system and to the instructions subsequently transmitted from the Adif control center to the affected trains. Among the known communications is the authorization for the AVE to resume circulation at "normal speed," despite the fact that the safety system had stopped working.
The CIAF has corrected this Thursday an update of its file that initially raised to 74 the number of dead and has confirmed that the death toll is 69 people. Emergency teams continue working at the scene of the accident, while the technical and judicial investigations try to clarify the sequence of events and the possible responsibilities.